A prominent Chinese lesbian couple held a simple ceremony July 2 to announce their informal marriage, in their latest effort to push for the legalization of same-sex unions in China.The union of Li Tingting and Teresa Xu came six days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to validate same-sex marriages in the United States, and four months after Li was detained in China for her women's rights activism. READ MORE.

BERLIN (AP) - The German Parliament's upper house is calling on the government to embrace full-fledged marriage for gay couples, an attempt to step up pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party. READ MORE.